A Guide to Pre-11+ Preparation: Your Child’s 11+ Journey Actually Starts Here!

Early preparation is key to helping your child approach their 11+ exams with confidence and competence. That’s why we’re excited to introduce our ever-growing Pre-11+ range of materials, specifically designed for students in Year 4 and early Year 5.

These resources replicate the format, structure and timings of the official assessments, allowing younger students to:

• Develop familiarity with the exam format.
• Strengthen their skills in Maths, English and Reasoning
• Build confidence and reduce anxiety about the upcoming 11+ exam

In this guide, we’re going to help you learn how to start strong and finish stronger!

Why Start 11+ Preparation Early?

Building strong foundations early gives your child a significant advantage. Rather than cramming close to the exam date, early preparation allows children to develop their skills gradually and thoroughly. This measured approach helps prevent stress and anxiety while fostering genuine, deep-rooted understanding.

The Pre-11+ Exam Advantage

Familiarity

By working with exam-style questions early, your child will become comfortable with the format, timings and structure of the actual test for the school/s they’re going for. This advance familiarity will significantly reduce fear of the unknown and allow for composed learning.

If you’re targeting Redbridge schools, consider starting with our Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 1 or Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 2. For broader preparation, the Redbridge Pre-11+ Full Practice Test Bundle is a great place to start.

Build Stamina Naturally

Test-taking stamina can’t be developed overnight! As with most challenges, we humans have to train in order to prepare our muscles and minds. Our Pre-11+ materials will help your child to take a steady, ‘marathon not a sprint’ approach, gradually building the concentration and endurance needed for their actual exams, without asking too much of them too soon.

Think of our Pre-11+ materials as a bridge between regular schoolwork and the 11+ examination. The slightly easier difficulty level allows children to master fundamental concepts before tackling more challenging questions, thus creating the scaffolding they need. Remember, there is often a gap between the level of learning in school and the level they will need to attain to successfully pass their 11+ exams. A progressive approach, beginning in Year 4, will give you time to pinpoint weaknesses and address them, ensuring no crucial learning gaps are left unfilled.

You can monitor progress by introducing mid-level papers such as Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 4 and Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 2.

How to Foster Early Excellence in your Child

As well as using our Pre 11 plus exam papers (obviously!), here are three impactful things you can start doing, right now, to help your child get a heard start in the 11+:

Reading

Establish a regular reading routine as early as you can. Set aside 20-30 minutes each day for reading, focusing on quality literature slightly above your child’s current level and read with them. Ask them to read a page and then you read a page, for example, and always be on hand to answer any questions they may have about what you’re reading. This builds vocabulary naturally and improves comprehension – crucial for the 11+ exam. It’s okay to have a dictionary by your side to look up words together; in fact, I actively encourage you to do so!

Make it enjoyable by discussing stories together and discovering new books. Don’t align reading with test prep. Position it as an enjoyable activity that they can look forward to.

Mental Maths

Practise some mental maths every day by incorporating quick maths exercises into daily activities. When shopping, ask your child to calculate discounts. During car rides, play mental maths games. Just 10 minutes of daily practice helps develop the quick-thinking skills needed for the maths section of the exam. The key is consistency rather than lengthy sessions.

Build Working Memory

Play memory-building games like Simon Says, card matching or sequence challenges like Memory Train. These activities will strengthen your child’s ability to hold and process information – an essential skill for problem-solving in 11+ exams. Plus, they’re fun and can involve the whole family, making 11+ preparation feel less like work and more like play, with everyone supporting one another.

How to Use EPP Pre-11+ Resources

Step 1

Begin by asking your child to complete one of our Pre 11+ Practice Tests for the school/s you are targeting. For example, Pre-11+ Kent Practice Test 1.  Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 1 or Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 4. Don’t worry too much about timing at this stage – just ask them to work through it at their own pace, but with the goal of finishing it, ideally over one or two sittings.

How does this help your child?

This will enable them to get a feel for what to expect in the real thing; the length, breadth, depth of the the exam; what question types will come up; how the exam is structured; an overview of timings etc.

How does this help you?

Once completed, use the accompanying mark scheme to mark their pre 11+ exam papers and then review. From this ‘diagnostic’, you will begin to identify knowledge gaps and areas they’re struggling with early on.

Step 2

Go over the paper with them or ask your tutor to do so. Make sure you acknowledge questions that were answered correctly to build confidence and motivation. It can be easy to skip over these without giving them their due! For those answered incorrectly, address each one individually and try to work out why. Did they misread the question? Did they not understand the question or the underlying concept? Did they rush and make a silly error?

This will help you to clarify the areas that will need to be improved. Choose a couple to focus on and target for the week ahead. At this stage, it’s a good idea to rotate in additional practice tests such as Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 5, Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 6, and Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 8 for continued Redbridge exposure, or Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 1, Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 5, Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 6 and Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 8 to develop variety and track improvements.

This is where you can use some of our Pre 11+ Exam Skills Packs. For example, if spelling is an issue, use our Pre 11+ English: Spelling pack, which contains 20 tests and 200 words that frequently come up in the 11+ exam. Each word is Introduced in context so students not only learn how to spell, but also how to use each word. This skills pack is suitable for both grammar and independent school exams.

Step 3

A week or so later, do another practice test to check in. See if and how they’ve improved overall and notice any areas that either still need consolidation or new ones that are flagged and require work. Celebrate where hard work and consistent study has shown progress; even if you can only see small improvements, note them, as they are the stepping stones to greater development and eventual transformation.

Keep maintaining this pattern of test paper practice intermingled with specific subject and skill study. This is a good pattern to adopt in Year 4 to build the foundations for Year 5 when study will intensify. They will be prepared both mentally and physically having started early. This approach creates strong habits while keeping the joy in learning.

Try rotating in fresh practice papers like Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 6 or Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 6 as a follow-up. For variety, test with options such as Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 7 or conclude a cycle with Redbridge Pre-11+ Practice Test 8 or Slough Pre-11+ Practice Test 8.

Consider Year 4 Assessment by Taking Pre 11+ Mock Exams

We advise you to include at least one Pre 11+ Mock exam in your child’s early preparation plan, if not a couple, so you can implement feedback and track progress over time.

Taking Pre 11+ Mock Exams in Year 4 – and at the beginning of Year 5 – offers several valuable advantages for young students. Early exposure to exam conditions helps children develop crucial time management skills and builds familiarity with the test format, thus reducing anxiety for the actual exams; plus, it introduces children to various question types and examination techniques, allowing them time to develop effective problem-solving strategies without the pressure of imminent formal testing. These practice Year 4 assessment and early Year 5 assessment sessions will allow you to identify knowledge gaps and areas needing improvement early doors so you are well ahead of the game.

Additionally, regular mock exam practice will help your child to build their mental stamina and concentration, essential qualities for maintaining focus during the often lengthy 11+ assessments. This gradual approach to exam preparation helps foster confidence and resilience, while ensuring students can refine their test-taking abilities over an extended period rather than cramming close to the examination date.